Essays, etc.

My talk at EarthX 2018, the largest Earth Day expo in the world. It's only about 20 minutes long. https://youtu.be/vBO-knV2n5E?t=32

I'll be teaching the Pentecost term course at the Theopolis Institute at Beeson Divinity School in May. Here are the details for anyone in the Birmingham area (or willing to drive): Course Description (May 13–15, 2019): “Ritual” is a universal way of describing human activity. All endeavors—technological, scientific, familial, and so on—are concerned with who can [...]

Our student success director had a brilliant idea: get staff and faculty to talk about their failures and how they dealt with them (in a well-crafted 2-minute video). As it so happens, I keep my diplomas framed behind a wall of framed rejection letters (as you can see in the video). Every once in a [...]

Even when distractions are controlled for, laptop use might impair performance by affecting the manner and quality of in-class note taking.1 By The Rev. Dr. Dru Johnson When studied side-by-side, computer note taking is clearly inferior to handwritten class notes. For most of us, that’s really all we need to know. But for some of us, we [...]

We're at the "galleys stage", which means I have to read the whole thing closely (for the fifth time) to make sure everything is as it should be. But it's nice to see how the print actually looks on the page after writing and re-writing a word document so many times. I originally suggested that the [...]

The Universal Story: Genesis 1–11 (26–27) "Jesus reminds them that the Sabbath stems from creation, which means that it’s for us, our animals, and our servants. In other words, he reminds the leaders of how the Sabbath structures our lives, but also breathes life into our social and political structures. Failure to see both sides [...]

If there's ever an appropriate time to curse, it's in the moment captured in the opening scene of the television show Up All Night. As two new parents gawk and hover over their first-born in her crib, they cannot help but to use expletives to express their awe: "She's so ####-ing beautiful." Mom and Dad chastise [...]

  (This essay first appeared in Comment Magazine) [ Image: Library of Congress; https://www.loc.gov/item/2016820361/%5D

Are we evading sin through a story that claims our sexual lives are redeemed through marriage? Am I, as a monogamous heterosexual (I’m using all these terms in their most naïve form) married man, sequestering sin from my sexuality? Geoffrey Rees counts sex as an integral part of the proliferation of sin into humanity (à [...]

https://issuu.com/thekingscollege/docs/emblem-tkcnyc-magazine-2017/18

(This essay is a response to Robin Parry's book The Biblical Cosmos and originally appeared on syndicate.network) In Jerusalem, when you look across the Ophel (that slope going up to the Temple Mount) toward the Mount of Olives, you cannot see what is behind it. The Mount of Olives confronts you as this intimidating hill to [...]

The question of the Bible’s own philosophical understanding has been revived in recent works by philosophically savvy biblical scholars and biblically savvy philosophers.[1] A new program unit—Hebrew Bible and Philosophy—has been created within the Society of Biblical Literature, dedicated to exploring specifically philosophical topics in the Hebrew Scriptures. Although such topics have always been present [...]

What do science and biblical wisdom have in common? Almost everything! Researchers explore the world through the skilled use of scientific tools, but also through the discerning sight they develop through training. And the Scriptures praise prudent knowledge that attends closely to the reality that surrounds us. Proverbs portrays wisdom as a process of submitting [...]